Abstract
Objective: To identify the knowledge and information received about episiotomy by women during the labor and delivery process. Method: This is a cross-sectional quantitative study, performed in a tertiary, public and university hospital. The sample consisted of postpartum women submitted to episiotomy. Data were collected from February to September 2016. Data were submitted to descriptive analysis using absolute and relative frequencies. Results: 246 postpartum women participated in the study. It was verified that 96.3% (n = 237) of the women knew the conditions of their postpartum perineum, 77.2% (n = 190) reported receiving information that they would undergo the episiotomy prior to performing the procedure, 65.0% (n = 160) were informed about the reason for the episiotomy and 75.0% of the episiotomy reasons reported by the women were "to increase the passage to the baby." Conclusion: Most of the women knew the conditions of their perineum, were informed that they would be submitted to episiotomy and received information about the reason for this procedure. Despite being considered a surgical procedure and requiring consent for its accomplishment, there were women exposed to episiotomy without sufficient information about the same.